Kategoria BISAC: Social Science >> Men's Studies

It is estimated that three to five percent of the adult male population of the United States feels the need, at least occasionally, to dress in women's clothing. Judging from enrollment at her academy, Miss Vera would say that figure is low.

Veronica Vera founded Miss Vera's Finishing School for Boys Who Want to Be Girls in 1992 and started a gender revolution. Working from the pink palace of the Academy's intimate Manhattan campus, she has helped hundreds of students embrace and master Venus Envy through her expert instruction in the arts of dressing up, making up, going out, and...

While the turbulent journey into womanhood has been a topic of such thoughtful and hugely popular books as Reviving Ophelia, SchoolGirls, and Girlfriends, the equally difficult journey into manhood has not received similar attention. In the Country of Men, Jan Waldron's second beautiful memoir, is a paean to boyhood and an expose of the myths of manhood.

This book grew out of a piece Waldron wrote for The New York Times Magazine about her teenage sons and their journeys into manhood. It was received with such enthusiasm, and she had so much more to say about the subject, that she decided to...

A century ago, while feminism began to alter our perception of the roles of women, a very different movement transformed the American ideal of manhood. Its defining terms were most clearly set forth at Harvard University in the decades following the Civil War. During those years, more than ever before in our culture, men became conscious of themselves as men. Kim Townsend introduces us to the men at Harvard who were the most influential supporters and vocal critics of the new ideal of manhood. At the center was Harvard psychologist and philosopher William James, whose own personal perspective...

Men have responded to feminism with feelings of anxiety, guilt and unease. It has taken time for men to consider ways of changing themselves rather than hiding behind feminist rhetoric.

This book tells the stories of 11 American gay men who tried to make sense of their identities in the years before the modern gay movement began. In their own words, these men recollect fascinating accounts of what it was like negotiate their desires within a social and psychological context in which homosexuality was marginalized. The editors carefully situate the lifestories in US culture before Stonewall and skillfully raises the issues and problems in presenting such stories.

This collection tells the stories of 11 American gay men who tried to understand their indentities in the years before the modern gay liberation movement began. From the 1920s through the 1960s, from a variety of regions and social classes, the men describe their families, early childhood experiences, coming out in settings unlike the gay neighbourhoods and communities of today, and their current romantic and sexual lives. For some men the military presented the opportunity to explore their personal and social identities; for others, a chance encounter in a seminary, an...

The nature of masculinity is a popular subject for contemporary authors, either treated critically from a sociological standpoint, or analysed from a psychological and spiritual perspective.
In Remaking Men, David Tacey argues that we must strive to bridge the gap between these separate traditions - masculinity should neither be hijacked by the spiritual, Jung-influenced men's movement, nor discussed merely as a product of socio-political forces.
Examining his own and other men's experience in a critical and lively discourse he evades the simplistic optimism of the 'inner...

In this era of rapid and unsettling change boys now more than ever face difficulties in establishing their self-image and status. In this study, the authors explore how teenage boys from white, African-Caribbean and Asian backgrounds negotiate contemporary uncertainties to construct their gender identities. Drawing theoretical insights about how class, race and ethnicity critically affect the formulation of masculinities throughout, the authors examine: the discrepancies between boys and girls' attitudes and expectations; the split between boys' formal acceptance of politically correct ideas...

Media Sport Stars considers how masculinity and male identity are represented through images of sport and sport stars. From the pre-radio era to today's specialist TV channels, newspaper supplements and websites, Whannel traces the growing cultural importance of sport and sportmen, showing how the very practices of sport are still bound up with the production of masculinities.
Through a series of case studies of British and American sportsmen, Whannel traces the emergence of of the sporting 'hero' and 'star', and considers the ways in which the lives of sport stars are narrated...

Media Sport Stars considers how masculinity and male identity are represented through images of sport and sport stars. From the pre-radio era to today's specialist TV channels, newspaper supplements and websites, Whannel traces the growing cultural importance of sport and sportmen, showing how the very practices of sport are still bound up with the production of masculinities.
Through a series of case studies of British and American sportsmen, Whannel traces the emergence of of the sporting 'hero' and 'star', and considers the ways in which the lives of sport stars are narrated...

Leisure Life is a ground-breaking study of men and masculinity. Focusing on the social networks and leisure lifestyles of a particular group of working-class men - 'the lads' - Tony Blackshaw argues that traditional social collectivities such as class are being superseded. Instead, leisure life is now the central arena in which individuals assert their identities and confirm their belonging. For 'the lads', leisure time is the pivotal point in a fragmented life which not only allows them to fashion some sense of order in a world of endemic disorder but also provides opportunities for...

The past twenty years have seen a growing interest in the issues surrounding men and masculinity. This has been driven primarily by the second-wave feminist critique of the legitimacy or hegemony of masculine practice and culture. The hegemony of men in social spheres such as the family, law, and workplace can no longer be taken for granted. This book contributes to contemporary understandings of men and masculinity by presenting a detailed examination of hegemonic masculinity.

Men & Masculinities is a new title in the Routledge Major Works series, Critical Concepts in Sociology. In five volumes, this set brings together canonical and cutting-edge material in the field to make sense of a rapidly expanding area of research.

The sociology of masculinity began to assume real significance from the late 1980s onwards, when it emerged out of the second wave of feminist research sweeping through American, European and Australasian universities at that time. In theoretical terms, scholars in the field primarily adopt sociological and...

Critically exploring the ways in which men and masculinities are commonly theorized, this multidisciplinary text opens up a discussion around such relationships, and shows that, as with feminisms, there is a diversity of theoretical traditions. It draws on a variety of examples, and explores new directions in the complexities of diverse male identities and emotional lives across different histories, cultures and traditions. This book:

• considers the experiences of different generations
• explores connections between masculinity and drugs
• investigates...

Critically exploring the ways in which men and masculinities are commonly theorized, this multidisciplinary text opens up a discussion around such relationships, and shows that, as with feminisms, there is a diversity of theoretical traditions. It draws on a variety of examples, and explores new directions in the complexities of diverse male identities and emotional lives across different histories, cultures and traditions. This book:

• considers the experiences of different generations
• explores connections between masculinity and drugs
• investigates...

Representing Black Men focuses on gender, race and representation in the literary and cultural work of black men.

This text questions society's normative standards of the masculine and contemplates the extent to which men and women can transcend these stereotypes. It examines the ways in which representations of masculinity and maleness in the media and the arts produce, challenge and ultimately shape notions of the masculine. Masculinity in relationship to science and law, two dominant social institutions that play a vital role in constructing stereotypes and establishing gendered power relationships, is also considered. The study aims to take the reader beyond the status of masculinity itself, arguing...

In this strikingly original work, Stephen Moore considers God's male bodies--the body of Yahweh in the Hebrew Bible, and the Father of Jesus Christ, and Jesus himself in the New Testament--and our obsessive earthly quest for a perfect human form. God's Gym is about divinity, physical pain, and the visions of male perfectability.
Weaving together his obsession with human anatomy and dissection, an interest in the technologies of torture, the cult of physical culture, and an expert knowledge of biblical criticism, Moore explains the male...

In this book, Shawn Johansen seeks to explode the myth of the cold and distant Victorian patriarch, whose domestic roles were limited to those of provider and disciplinarian. Using a selection of personal writings he contends that their domestic lives were much more complex, involving domestic chores, caring for children, and a more active role in parenting than previously thought.

From Custer and Geronimo to John Wayne and the Marlboro Man, American notions of masculinity have been deeply interwoven with our image of the West. There is more to the relationship between manhood and the frontier than a simple tale of cowboys and Indians, ruggedness and in Across the Great Divide historians look to both the history of masculinity in the West and to the ways in which this experience has been represented in films, popular music, dimestore novels and folklore. Ramon Gutierrez ( When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away ) describes the culture of machismo in early New...